Learning from Catherine

To this day I cannot remember who first told me about Catherine Marshall and put a copy of her book Something More in my hands.

I only remember that it was at one of the most difficult times of my life. I was a single mom with three small children. My heart was broken and I was in desperate need of healing and direction.

The title alone excited me. My heart was longing for something more. I read the book straight through and subsequently bought all of Catherine Marshall’s books. She was the first woman author I read that spoke on the practical everyday side of walking with God. She had already walked the road I had just begun to travel. Her books answered so many questions and gave me hope and encouragement all along the way.

There are three points I’d like to share from Catherine’s books that were critical to my growth at the beginning.

The first was her chapter on The King’s Treasury. My heart leapt with joy as I was reading it. I finally understood tithing. I had been taught to tithe as a child but had fallen away from it when I left home and lived on my own. Years later, when I was divorced and alone with my three children, I asked my mother how I was ever going to manage financially. “Tithe,” was her response. “Everything else will work out.”

I started tithing immediately and had been tithing for a couple of years when I began to have doubts. It didn’t’ seem like everything else was working out. My finances seemed to be getting worse. My greatest worry was for my children’s college education. Every time

I put my tithe in the basket at church, I would ask myself if I was cheating my children out of their future. I calculated how much the tithe might be in a few years if I put it in an IRA for them. Once I prayed, “Lord, if I am making a mistake by tithing, please do not let my children pay the price for it. If there is any blessing for tithing, please let it fall on my children.”

No mater how hard I tried, I could not save a dime for their education. That’s when I read Catherine Marshall’s story of being a single parent with limited finances. Peace filled my entire being and I was encouraged to continue tithing and trusting God. I am happy to say that all of my children went to college. The Lord provided in ways I could not have foreseen.

“Bring the whole tithe  into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me in this, says the Lord of hosts; Shall I not open for you the floodgates of Heaven, to pour down blessing upon you without measure?” (Malachi 3:10)

My journals are filled with daily documentation of the Father’s provision and personal care for my three children and me—which brings me to the second point I found in Catherine Marshall’s books: she kept a daily prayer journal. I, too, “pray best at the point of a pen.” Suddenly, I didn’t feel so strange. I felt like I had a friend who understood me.

As I recorded my prayers and God’s answers and blessings, I discovered that my focus changed from any problem to the faithfulness and love of God. My heart was filled with gratitude, joy, and hope. I kept a journal so I could have something to hand down to my children so they could see how the Lord has always been with us. But I also use it now for publishing the wonderful things the Lord has done for us.

“Let this be written for the next generation, for a people not yet born, that they may praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:19)

The third point from Catherine Marshall’s books is that of intercessory prayer. It was life-changing the day I came to realize that I was not the only single mom in the world, the only one with a broken heart, or the only one going through a difficult time. My prayers became global. Interceding for others gave me a new purpose and brought great joy to my heart.

I started an intercessory prayer group in my home and we met for years. When I went back to work, I began an evening intercessory prayer group and we have been meeting for twenty-three years.

We have seen God do so many incredible things that sometimes we laugh and say with the prophet Isaiah, “Who has believed our report?” (Isaiah 52:1).

I thank God for Catherine Marshall and her gift of writing and ministry of intercessory prayer. She taught me how to use the gifts God has given me for the good of others. May God bless and prosper all those she loved and all those involved in her ministry of Breakthrough Intercessors.